Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s office is losing a second senior leader in a month, with chief communications officer Julie Smith set to leave her job Oct. 9.
Alex Apple, the office’s communications director, attributed Smith’s resignation to “personal reasons.” Her departure comes as O’Connell has about a year remaining in his term and is expanding his reelection campaign.
Smith joined the administration as communications director in February 2024, shortly after O’Connell took office, and was recently promoted to chief communications officer. She described the position as “the honor of my career” and identified work on the Choose How You Move transportation referendum and budget messaging among its highlights.
“I’m deeply grateful to Mayor O’Connell for his trust and partnership, and to the communications team I’ve had the privilege of leading,” Smith said in a statement. “Their skills and steadiness are the real reason this office has met every moment asked of it.”
She also thanked residents as she prepared to leave the administration.
“I’m grateful, too, to the people of Nashville, who have been patient, engaged, and generous with their trust,” Smith said. “I leave with enormous confidence in this administration and this team, and with real gratitude for the chance to have done this work in this city, at this time.”
Smith’s exit follows the resignation a month earlier of Kristin Wilson, Metro’s chief of operations and performance. The two departures mark changes in senior leadership during the closing year of the mayor’s current term.
O’Connell won the mayor’s office in 2023 after serving on the Metro Council. Nashville’s mayor serves a four-year term and leads a consolidated city-county government whose responsibilities range from public works and parks to public safety. Communicating across that range of services requires coordination between the mayor’s office and individual departments, which also maintain their own public information channels.
The communications job brought Smith back to a city where she had built much of her career. She worked as a producer at WKRN before moving into public-sector communications, holding positions with the Tennessee Department of Safety, the Tennessee Department of Transportation and Nashville’s Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency.
Those agencies handle issues with a direct bearing on daily life, including driver services, transportation infrastructure and housing. MDHA, Nashville’s housing and development agency, administers affordable housing programs and oversees redevelopment work, making its communications particularly relevant to residents navigating housing assistance or neighborhood changes.
Smith later held senior communications positions with the City and County of Denver and with Guilford County, North Carolina, before returning to Nashville to work for O’Connell.
Among the most consequential initiatives during her time in the mayor’s office was Choose How You Move. Nashville voters approved the transportation program in November 2024, establishing dedicated funding through a half-percentage-point sales tax increase. The program includes improvements to bus service, sidewalks, traffic signals and transportation safety.
Its passage followed Nashville voters’ rejection of a different transit proposal in 2018. The 2024 vote gave Metro a new funding framework for transportation improvements in a city where growth has intensified longstanding concerns about congestion, pedestrian safety and access to reliable transit.
For residents, the work extends beyond a referendum campaign. Implementation requires public explanations of project schedules, construction impacts and service changes. In North Nashville and elsewhere, decisions about sidewalks, crossings and bus connections can affect whether residents can safely reach jobs, schools, medical appointments and grocery stores.
Budget communications are another recurring responsibility for the mayor’s office. Metro’s fiscal year begins July 1, and the mayor proposes an annual spending plan for consideration by the Metro Council. The council reviews departmental needs, holds a public hearing and adopts the budget. Explaining those decisions helps residents understand how tax dollars support services and how proposed spending may affect their neighborhoods.
Residents can follow administration announcements through the mayor’s office page at Nashville.gov. The city’s website also provides access to Metro Council meeting schedules, agendas and budget documents, allowing residents to track proposals beyond the mayor’s public messaging.
For routine service requests, residents can use hubNashville online or call 311. That system routes nonemergency concerns to the appropriate Metro departments rather than relying on the mayor’s communications staff to resolve individual requests. Transportation program information is also available through Metro’s official Choose How You Move pages.
Smith’s final day in the role will be Oct. 9, bringing her tenure in the mayor’s office to a close as the administration continues its transportation work, prepares for another budget cycle and approaches the next mayoral election.